School Year Blog: South African high school students learn radio reporting

This story is part of a year-long series, School Year: Learning, Poverty and Success in a South African Township.

Over the past year, I’ve become something of a fixture at the Centre of Science and Technology (COSAT), a public high school in Cape Town. I’ve been producing a radio series about the school and students have gotten used to seeing me in the hallways and classrooms, microphone in hand, constantly asking questions.

Now, some students have had a chance to see what it’s like on my side of the mic.

The Children’s Radio Foundation, a non-profit organization that teaches radio production to children around Africa, recently started an after-school radio program at COSAT. Students have learned recording, storytelling and reporting skills.

Toward the end of the school year, the kids ventured out into the community and produced some short radio reports. Here are two of them:

The Department of Coffee

A Local Daycare

While the School Year series is ending, you can continue to hear stories about COSAT by visiting the Children’s Radio Foundation SoundCloud page. Meanwhile, my intern, Robyn Murray, put together this video, showing the students in action.